Education common theme for mayoral hopefuls

A small field of diverse and well-educated candidates announced their intentions to run for mayor of Silver City on the filing date Tuesday. Each believes their background qualifies them for the highest elected office in the town.

The candidates — Cynthia Bettison, Ken Ladner and Dr. Mark Donnell — have close associations with Western New Mexico University in common.

Bettison, Silver City’s mayor pro tem, is also an archaeologist and the director of the WNMU Museum. Here she directs a staff, promotes Silver City tourism, and minds the history of the region.

“I do the sort of thing I would do as mayor in my daily life,” Bettison said.

She is also the only one of the three candidates to have served as an elected official in the town. She has served as District 1 town councilor for multiple terms, and been elected mayor pro tem and representative to the New Mexico Municipal League by the Town Council. Within the league, she has risen to the board of directors. But even with those leadership experiences, her mayoral aspirations would take Bettison into new waters.

“As a council member, you’re a legislator,” she said. “As a mayor, you’re basically the CEO. But I know I could step right in, become the mayor, and move forward to a vision that helps the town.”

Ladner has now retired, but worked as a professor at the university for decades — even serving briefly as interim president of the institution. He said he was asked to step in as president at a very difficult time for the university, during which the school lost its fund balance and tensions within the already political academic environment were even higher. He said he spent lots of time traveling among the many groups, easing that tension and eventually recovering the fund balance from the state.

“After my year was over, the [Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce] asked me to be on their board, and I did. Then they asked me to be president,” Ladner said. “That kick-started a really great relationship. I found myself in as working a full-time job, but also being very involved and getting to know the community.”

After serving as the chamber president, he served on the Silver City MainStreet Project board, focusing on the MainStreet Gift Certificate program. He said he would like to continue public/private partnerships of that type if elected as Silver City’s mayor.

“All of these projects focused on one thing, though — streetlights, gift certificates, the college,” Ladner said. “As mayor, you have to look at the whole town.”

While Donnell has spent most of his career in Silver City as an anesthesiologist at Gila Regional Medical Center, he has also worked as an assistant professor of chemistry at WNMU.

It was his time at the hospital, however, that shaped his confidence that he had the experience necessary to effectively govern the town.

“I have held just about every position at the hospital,” Donnell said. “That includes chief of staff and chairperson of most of the major committees.”

Most recently, he helped rewrite the bylaws and rules and regulations for medical staff at the hospital.

All of this has kept Donnell very busy until recently, when he announced his retirement from clinical practice. That retirement is effective in April. The idea to spend that newly available time in elected office came recently, though.

“I honestly hadn’t ever considered the idea,” Donnell said, “until a couple of friends who work in City Hall gave me a call and asked if I would consider it.”

Donnell said that while he thinks each of the candidates in this race is qualified for the job, he just thinks he would be best. Bettison said she looks forward to the competition, and getting into the real meat of the election process. Ladner spent his afternoon on Friday erecting early election signs as the snow coated the town in white.

And even though filing day for the ballot is behind us, the slate of candidates might not be complete. There is still the matter of write-in candidates, who must file for their candidacy on Jan. 12.

Municipal elections will be held on March 1.

—BENJAMIN FISHER

Editor’s Note: As originally published, this story misspelled the name of candidate Dr. Mark Donnell. This online version has been edited to use the correct spelling. The Daily Press regrets the error.